Where the Lost Ones Go

I Can't Do Anything!

Because of Anya

Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle

Cancer

Forbidden Friends

Unsettled

Frankie and Amelia

In this gorgeously written and authentic novel, Verónica, a Peruvian-American teen with hip dysplasia, auditions to become a mermaid at a Central Florida theme park in the summer before her senior year, all while figuring out her first real boyfriend and how to feel safe in her own body.

Verónica has had many surgeries to manage her disability. The best form of rehabilitation is swimming, so she spends hours in the pool, but not just to strengthen her body.

Her Florida town is home to Mermaid Cove, a kitschy underwater attraction where professional mermaids perform in giant tanks . . . and Verónica wants to audition. But her conservative Peruvian parents would never go for it. And they definitely would never let her be with Alex, her cute new neighbor.

She decides it’s time to seize control of her life, but her plans come crashing down when she learns her parents have been hiding the truth from her—the truth about her own body.

Discover Your Child's Next Read

Where the Lost Ones Go

Akemi Dawn Bowman, 2022

I Can't Do Anything!

Thierry Robberecht, 2013

Because of Anya

Margaret Peterson Haddix, 2002

Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle

Nina Lacour, 2023

Cancer

Lisa Yount, 1999

Forbidden Friends

Anne-Marie Conway, 2013

Unsettled

Reem Faruqi, 2021

Frankie and Amelia

Cammie Mcgovern, 2021